The Addison Cafe

I freaked out the other day when I got home and to my dismay, pushing the power button on my computer elicited…well, nothing. It would start up for about two seconds and then just turn off. Turns out we had a power outage earlier in the day and something got fried. Fearing that I had to buy a new computer, or that I potentially lost ALL of my files, I spent the next five hours troubleshooting, Googling, and calling friends that might have an idea what was wrong. In the end, it was only a bad power supply. In non-techie language, that means I didn’t lose any files and didn’t have to buy a new computer; I just needed to replace one part.

The whole fun-filled ordeal was actually my fault in part because when I bought the parts for my computer, I bought a low-quality cheapo power supply. Rather than spending an extra $20 bucks initially on a good power supply, I now had to spend an extra $80 to replace the dead one.

Sometimes the best way to save money is to spend money. Over and over lately I have been learning the age old lesson, “buy it right or buy it twice”. It can be so tempting to buy cheap when it comes to water heaters, mattresses, running shoes, appliances, cars, computers, etc, but in the end it almost always pays off to buy quality goods over the cheaper models. They are cheap for a reason…

I continually run into people who want to get a dog but don’t know the best place to look. They usually have no concept of how much it will cost either. Most people are shocked when they find out they can get a great pet for the price of an iPod Touch. Here’s the scoop:

1.  Check out http://www.puppyfinder.com for new and used dogs (ha).

2.  Adopting a pet usually saves a ton in medical bills since most of the time they come with shots and are fixed.

3.  Mutts are often times healthier than pure breeds, and thus cost less to purchase and keep.

4.  A dog usually lasts a lot longer than an iPod (hopefully).

5.  If you’re wondering about the cost of pet maintenance…how much do you spend on iTunes a month?

6.  iPods don’t greet you when you get home (maybe in a couple of years…)

Dogs (or any pet for that matter) are a lot of responsibility, something that is often overlooked in the excitement of trying to find one, but they sure make a great present and might not cost as much as you think… 

Buying a house is a huge decision (at least it should be). Statistically, over the last 50 years houses have gotten bigger and families have gotten smaller. Like so many other things, we now feel that we “need” a huge half-empty house. There can definitely be an upside to owning a ‘big’ house (which is why people do it), such as more space, guest rooms, specialty rooms, long term investment, etc. However, bigger isn’t always better.

I used to always want a ‘big’ house until recently. Thanks to a blog post by Frugal Dad, I realized that with a small house:

There is less to clean
Potentially lower property taxes
Smaller mortgage (and quicker to pay off)
Less furniture is needed to “fill” it
Easier to live off one income
Less isolating from family
Lower utility bills

…and all of that equals LESS stress and MORE freedom; the two things we so often forget to examine in our lives because we can’t see them. What do you think?